A: "Why is a built in, golf ball shaped filter a good thing to look for when selecting a teapot?"
The golf ball shaped filter has more holes than a flat built in filter. The 3D filter also makes is very unlikely that all the holes get clogged with expanding tea leaves. Then, there is the fact that it's made with the same material as the teapot instead of metal, which should not come in contact with tea. So, it filters without changing the taste of the tea.
A filter is most useful when you are brewing broken or very small tea leaves or if the teapot is very big. But, if you're brewing big, whole Wuyi Oolong or Wenshan Baozhong leaves in a very small teapot, then you probably don't need such a filter. Big leaves don't fit round holes exactly. And should one enter it, then you would use a bamboo pick to clear it open.
Golf ball shaped filters are rather recent inventions (40 years approximately). So, you would look for one in a new pot, but you definitely wouldn't want to see such a filter in an 'antique' one!
(Antique pot without filter)
Where can we buy these?
ReplyDeleteI more or less had the idea that those filters were inspired by japanese style teapots -but then again I don't know when japanese started to craft teapots with rounded filters, maybe they recently got the idea from elsewhere. Besides, you can find japanese porcelain teaposts dedicated to gyokuro and directly derivated from small gfc xishis, so I guess lots of techniques and styles just swapped.
ReplyDeleteJe croyais plus ou moins que ces filtres étaient d'inspiration japonaise, mais je me rends compte que je ne sais pas de quand date cette façon de faire au Japon, alors les japonais sesont peut-être très récemment inspirés des chinois. Beaucoup de phémènes d'échanges et d'adaptations d'ailleurs : on trouve même des petites porcelaines pour gyokuros dérivées des thèières à gfc.
What about silver teapots then ? They puzzle me.
Et les théières en argent ? gros mystère pour moi.
(au fait, je commente en double, mais as-tu une "règle" ou une habitude de fonctionnelent pourl esposts en anglais ?)
The filters are built-in, so you need to purchase the whole teapot! If you want something from my selection page, just drop me an e-mail at stephane_erler(at)yahoo(dot)com
ReplyDeleteFlo,
C'est sympa de faire de la traduction instantannée. Il n'y a pas de règle. C'est comme tu veux.